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I’ve been somewhat indulgent of late… Not only have I been adding to my make up kit, I’ve also been very naughty and acquired a new addition to my family…

Meet Fred..!

Eating fluff, casually…

I got Fred a few days ago, he is SO cheeky… A friend of mine decided to re-home him after he realised he didn’t have the time to look after him, so me being me I decided to take him in! Pugs are one of my favourite breed of dogs, alongside Pomeranians, Chow chows, Frenchies, and St Bernards… What can I say, I LOVE the fuzzy things!

Right, back to the main topics of the day, I’ve been adding to my kit more than usual lately, so I thought i’d do a round up of some of the new products that I’m loving at the moment.

I’ll list the products individually and do a quick review giving my personal opinions on them…

First up…

Rimmel Stay Blushed – Sunkissed Cherry (L) and Pop of Pink (R)

The latest offering in cream blush is from Rimmel. Described as a ‘Lightweight liquid cheek tint’ these two shades of blush provide a decent amount of colour. I personally love the packaging as it’s perfect for my kit, I’m able to check which colour I want without unscrewing the lid etc as the colour is right there in front of you. You have to blend quite quickly as the kind of ‘set’ real quick once you start smoothing it into the skin. Long lasting, perfect for wedding make up or any make up that you wish to stay put all day.

MAC Paint Pot in Groundwork

Next up is a Paint Pot by MAC in the Shade Groundwork. I kept seeing postings from one of my favourite artists Kenneth Soh (www.musingsofamakeupartist.com) using this shade and I really waned to test it out for myself. I love the shade and I think it suits almost all skin tones. It’s super blend-able and gives good definition when blending into the socket lines. Looks good as a look on it’s own with a red lip. Looking forward to using this more on shoots.

Maybelline 24 Hour Colour Tattoo Eye Shadow

A beautiful golden pink shade of Maybellines 24 hour cream eye shadow, this gorgeously girly colour is easily blended and provides a multi tonal shade across your lids. A perfect shade for brides and natural look make up looks. I totally under use my cream eye shadows but I love the consistency and blendability (is that even a word?!) of Maybellines cream shadows. MUST.BUY.MORE…!!

Clinique Airbrush Concealer in shade ’03 Light’

I’ve been wanting to expand on my concealers lately and after reading great reviews for Clinique’s Airbrush Concealer I thought I’d take the plunge and try it out. I got the shade 03 Light as it’s the sort of shade I use my often on my models so I knew it would definitely get used and tested. So far so good, I used it last week on a model (of which I will upload photos of soon) and it did exactly what it said it would. It’s got a lightwieght formula and blends into the skin effortlessly. I will definitely be purchasing some darker shades for my kit too.

Sanctuary Spa Stop The Clock Moisturiser with SPF 15

Now onto skin care which brings me to this moisturiser by Sanctuary Spa. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this moisturiser. I tend to have normal to oily to extremely oily skin and I don’t find this creamy moisturiser too heavy at all. It feels extremely indulgent and has a wonderful fresh scent to it. With SPF 15 in it it also reassures me that I’m protecting my skin. I have also used this on a couple of my models and it has provided amazing results. It acts great as a base for foundation and the SPF is low enough that it doesn’t give any flashback when flash photography. I’m going to purchase another tub so that I can always have one in my bathroom and one in my kit. Super happy with this purchase.

Soap & Glory Scrub Your Nose In It

Second up in skin care is this finely milled facial scrub – come – mask by Soap & Glory. I haven’t used many of Soap & Glory’s skin care or cosmetics, to be completely honest I always presumed that when a products packaging is so nice that the actual product is somewhat overlooked. I picked up this scrub however after I saw the AHA formula and high quality ingredients. So far it has not disappointed! I have only used this on myself so far as I forgot to take it with me to my last shoot however I cannot wait to use it on my next model should she require some exfoliation. I find a lot of facial scrubs a bit too harsh but this one has such tiny grains in that it doesn’t matter how much or how hard you scrub you’re never going to damage or harm your skin unlike those with larger beads/grains in. It has a minty scent to it and you can use it as a scrub on damp skin or as a face mask. My pores appear reduced after a week of using this and my overall complexion seems a lot clearer. I love the minty cooling feeling it gives, a great product in my opinion so far which I will definitely be adding to my models skin preparation.

Barry M ‘Blue Moon’ Nail Polish

I am such a lover of blue nail polish. This new blue form Barry M is more of a minty green/blue colour which has a very subtle iridescence to it. It has a good coverage and 2-3 coats is plenty enough for a dense colour. This and Blueberry (also Barry M) are my latest new favourite blue shades.

Last of my new additions are these Lipstick Palettes (they’re actually advertised a bead storage containers) from Hobbycraft. I have been wanting to get all of my lipsticks into one place for some time now as opposed to having them loose in a storage bag and spending too much time looking for a specific shade. I decided to go for something fairly inexpensive as opposed to something like the Japonesque lip palette. There’s plenty of space in these containers (a little bit more than I actually wanted) to hold a full lipstick bullet and at jus over £4 for two I think they are a great lip storage palette! Great for dividing up shades such as reds/pinks/nudes/darks etc.

Wellt that’s it from me. I hope you all have had a great weekend. I plan to do a portfolio update post shortly as I’ve had a fair few images back from recent shoots that’d I’d love to share with product breakdowns…so watch this space!

So I’ve just got some images back from an amazing editorial shoot I did a few months back which I’m now allowed to share!

The shoot took place in a really cool studio in East London called provision – really loved that place, must keep it in mind for future projects!

So our lovely model for the day was Hannah from Storm who can be seen here with some very minimal natural make up on by me:

The brief was very Alexander McQueen inspired. A lot of natural decay & taxidermy. Our model was to have a lot of contouring, and her eyebrows blocked out. Fun!

Here’s some behind the scenes I snapped whilst we were getting down to business:

And here was my make up station. A nice big huge space for my kit with the biggest mirror, love! I would like to point out that this was post-make up application and not beforehand, i’m not THAT messy ha.

For eyebrow blocking there’s a few methods one can use to create an illusion of a brow-less face. One way, which was the first way I learned, is to use wax. Essentially it involves using your thumb and a lot of pressure to smooth the wax over the brow to seal the hairs in place. The second and most favoured method is to use Pritt Stick! For this, you basically want to slide one layer of pritt stick over the brow, and then use a spatular and dig a chunk out of the glue stick to smooth over the brow once the first layer has dried. As with both methods it’s then a case of building the concealer up in layers and powdering in between for extra hold.

Hannah previously had a bad experience with the pritt stick method when another MUA did not remove it all after the job therefore she was not so keen on having them removed that way, luckily I brought with me both my glue AND wax!

The wax version is a little harder to work with however with a sharp eye I managed to get rid of those brows and was able to jump in at any point to smooth anything over. The wax I use is by Kryolan which can be found online or at Charles Fox in Covent Garden, London.

As this shoot was a few months ago, I can’t fully remember all of the products I used but I can definitely remember a few..

For Hannah’s complexion I used MAC’s Full Coverage in a blend of two shades. For all of you who have used full coverage before and know how thick it i, fear not – just use less and mix it with some Strobe cream. It gives a really nice coverage to skin and has that dewy effect at the same time owing to the strobe cream. I use this a lot on my models and it has a really great staying power. For Hannah’s eye contouring I used a mix of medium and dark browns from my MAC palette and I know Satin Taupe was definitely used A LOT. For contouring I used Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder in shade 52.

Without further ado, here are a selection of the final images that I personally love.

What do you think? Probably not an everyday look for the office but I love the flow of the images, the styling and the dramatics of the props.

Recently I was part of a very exciting shoot which took place on a boat on the canal in West London. One thing to know about me is I LOVE boats. In fact, one of my many aims in life is to get my skipper license so that I can sail my own boat one day. So yeah, love the things.

I was lucky to be in the company of so many talented and creative people that day. The owner of the boat, a ridiculously cool cordwainer who makes amazing accessories from leather was the perfect host, sailing us to various locations for the shoot, telling us about the history of the canal and the grand surrounding buildings. We sailed through the picturesque Little Venice and eventually moored in Camden Lock where there were hundreds of folk out drinking along the waterside and the rooftop bars – watching us as we captured the final look of the day and wrapped up.

Some behind the scenes I snapped during the day. How adorable is the husky we had for company?

We had a male and female model on board (literally) and I was Hair & Make up Artist for the female model, Lera. Although I didn’t get a snap of Lera pre-hair & make up I have managed to find a pretty natural shot which I’ve sneaked from her book. Here is the lovely lady.

Lera had gorgeous eyes and really full lips – a dream to work on basically! I decided to use Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in a mix of shades 51 and 53 until I reached Lera’s perfect skin colouring. There were three looks required for the whole shoot, but only slight variances, nothing too drastic which required me to change the whole look completely.

As this shoot was for submission to a magazine I’m not allowed to share the final images online however I can show you some of the beauty images that were pulled out for me to use for my book.

Look #1

This was the first look where I used some golden shades from my MAC palette to create a golden brown defined eye. Unfortunately the harsh sunlight took away a lot of the shimmery golden-ness from the eyes but I’m kind of loving the rusty effect it has created. On Lera’s lips I used a couple of shades from my Kryolan lip palette and slicked my Tarte LipSurgence over the top for some added colour and shine.

Look #2

Here in look two I upped the ante a little, with some stronger contouring (although not visible in this image) using my Dainty Doll blush in 003. For lips I removed the first layers of products with Bioderma Crealine H20 on a cotton pad, smoothed over the foundation and concealed around the mouth area before lining with MAC’s ‘Redd’ lip liner. I filled in Lera’s lips with Russian Red, also by MAC and patted an orange coloured lipstick (Kiss Me by Sleek) for a subtle 3 dimensional look. How luscious do our models lips look here?!

Look #3

And finally look three. I used a mix of deep reds from my Kryolan palette to create this deep glossy red shade and brightened Lera’s eyes using my favourite highlighter Luna. I can’t wait to share the final editorial when it comes out, not long now!

Which is your favourite look? I think mine is the last, teamed with those wavy glossy locks I created with my straighteners!

Thursday had me working with a new photographer, Chris Nutt. Chris takes beautiful photographs of beautiful boys and girls.

In the studio today we got to play with the ever so handsome Ross, winner of this years Elite Model Look. At just 16 years old Ross was scouted in London’s Covent Garden whilst out shopping with his mum.

I was excited to work with Ross as I was there at the final where I watched him walk the catwalk in front of hundreds of people and the judges. He was crowned winner out of 11 competitors and the standards were very high. Here is a photo just before the winner was announced.

So, Into the studio came a very tall (6ft 1!) young man all bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to have some photos taken for his book. As a make up artist you’ll often be asked to do natural grooming for male models. Although it’s not as exciting as working with girls, it’s always real fun and laid back, and Ross was no exception.

For the grooming I kept it simple, cleansed his skin and massaged the cleanser in for a mini facial massage to get his blood moving and waken the face. At 16 years he he really didn’t need much doing as he had the gift of youthful skin, therefore I used a thin layer of MAC’s face and body, and concealed just where he needed it. I gelled his brows into place, and mattified his skin and moisturised his lips and he was pretty much ready to go! With male models you only really need to apply what is needed, to enhance the looks and not change them too much, and to keep the texture of the skin looking as natural as possible.

Apologies that I didn’t get a closeup, but here is Ross in action after I released him from my make up chair!

I’m sure that he’s going to have an amazing modelling career, I will post the final images once they are ready 🙂

Wednesday saw me making up the absolutely stunning Michaela. Michaela is the kind of beauty that stops you in your tracks, literally. She has a face full of adorable freckles, huge, I mean HUGE eyes and full plump lips with very long voluminous dark hair. Boy was I in awe of her. And what a lovely girl she was too. I was very lucky to have such a great canvas to work with.

Michaela had very normal skin, not too oily and not too dry. She has some small blemishes to the sides of her cheeks, but nothing that a bit of make up couldn’t disguise!

I gave Michaela a mini facial massage when moisturising Benefit’s Total Moisture into her skin. I then used strobe cream all over for that under foundation glow! The brief was to create a purple smokey eye and a nude lip so I looked at Michaela’s skin and feautres and picked these products accordingly. As she had beautiful freckles I didn’t want to cover them up completely and so I used Chanel Vitalumiere as her base. This foundation is one of my favourites (mostly I love the scent ha!) but it gives a beautiful light/med coverage and a gorgeous glow to the skin, perfect for our model.

Being the numnut I am I didn’t take a before photo of Michaela, and I was going to take a retrospective before photo after I removed the make up after the shoot was complete however she wanted to keep it on, so that failed ha! But here’s a couple of photos I took after I applied her make up with and without my flash.

Isn’t she gorgeous? The purple goes really well with her colouring and her dark hair and brows. HER BROWS, I forgot to mention, were amazing. With the strong eye they really didn’t need anything adding to them so I used my usual trick of ‘glueing’ them in place and voila, that’s Michaela’s look complete.

I should also mention that in the background of the first image is Louise O’Keeffe (http://www.louise-okeeffe.com) who is an amazingly talented fashion illustrator. Go check her work out! I plan on purchasing some (a lot) of her prints for my house!

What do you think about this look? Simple but gorgeous I think. Comments and suggestions are welcome!

So, THIS just happened. I FINALLY created a blog. Granted, at present it’s not so sophisticated, and I definitely haven’t got this whole html, widget and links thing nailed, but boy am I on my way.

Forget first job interviews, meeting the parents, driving test; THIS is the real ball buster. The kind of stuff that keeps you awake at night… The infamous First Blog Entry.

So, without further ado, let me introduce myself.

My name is Marie. I’m a London girl, of average height and average looks with an above average fondness (edit, infatuation) for Make up, Skincare and Fashion and Life. Oh and the sun. Always the sun.

What Love & War Paint aims to bring is a view of the life of a Make up Artist from the inside out. It will be a platform for my obsessive ‘behind the scenes’ photo snapping, before & afters, pro product reviews and anything else I find amusing or share-worthy along the way.

I do hope you enjoy, feel free to shoot me a message to let me know your thoughts, and in the meantime I’ll be polishing up on my blogging and technological skills to make viewing Love & War Paint that little bit easier on your mince pies.